The 81st Venice Film Festival, a glittering return to form after a muted 2023 edition marred by industry strikes, delivered a star-studded spectacle worthy of the world’s oldest cinematic showcase. Oscar-winning actors like Nicole Kidman, Adrien Brody, Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Angelina Jolie, Tilda Swinton, and Julianne Moore graced the Lido, along with Golden Lion-winning directors Todd Phillips and Alfonso Cuarón, all vying for this year’s coveted prizes.
Opening night saw screen legend Sigourney Weaver awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, a fitting tribute to her illustrious career spanning decades and iconic films like “Alien”, “Working Girl”, “Gorillas in the Mist”, and “Avatar”. Meanwhile, Australian auteur Peter Weir, celebrated for directing cult classics like “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, “Dead Poets Society”, and “The Truman Show”, received the equivalent directing honor.
As for the festival’s most prestigious awards, ranging from the Golden Lion to the Silver Lion for directing, the Volpi Cups for best actor and actress, the Golden Osella for best screenplay, and the Marcello Mastroianni award for most promising newcomer, the president of this year’s jury, Isabelle Huppert, declared, “I have good news for you: cinema is in great shape.” She praised her fellow jurors, a group that included directors James Gray, Andrew Haigh, and Agnieszka Holland, as well as actor Zhang Ziyi, saying, “We thought about our past, we thought about our present, and we thought about our future—all those windows to the world were wide open, and all we saw was invention, creativity, care, and concern.”
The night’s biggest news was the awarding of the Golden Lion to “The Room Next Door”, Pedro Almodóvar’s first film in the English language. The film features standout performances from Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. Nicole Kidman, in her fearless performance in “Babygirl”, claimed the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, practically sealing her place in the Oscar race. In an emotional speech delivered by her director Halina Reijn, Kidman shared she had traveled home to Australia after the death of her mother and was unable to accept the award in person.
Georgian filmmaker Déa Kulumbegashvili’s “April”, a unique and critically acclaimed take on the conventional abortion drama narrative, received a Special Jury Prize. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”, which had been widely predicted to win the Golden Lion, ultimately secured the Best Director prize.
With Venice’s remarkable track record of predicting future Oscar winners – four of the last ten Best Picture winners premiered on the Lido – the journey of the festival’s most acclaimed films is only just beginning. Below is a complete list of the winners, all gearing up for their campaigns as we inch closer to the 2025 Oscar race:
